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Modi living up to his sullied reputation Asif Haroon Raja

Posted by admin in Afghan -Taliban-India Axis, CROSS BORDER KILLINGS BY INDIA, Cult of Hindutva, HINDUISM CULT, India, India Global Exporter of Terrorism, INDIA'S HINDUISM, Makaar Dushman, Suppression of Women in Hindu India on January 20th, 2015


Modi living up to his sullied reputation

Asif Haroon Raja

Hindu bigot Narendra Modi, well known for his acute animus towards Indian Muslims and Pakistan and his passion for Hindutva was elected as the PM of India in June 2014 with a heavy mandate. He was eulogized and lionized by Indian media duly backed by western media and all his past sins were pushed under the rug. He was projected as a go-getter and an economic wizard who would once again make India shining and a world power. There were some in Pakistan who went overboard applauding him and saw everything good in him. They went to the extent of saying that he would prove to be the harbinger of peace between the two archrivals since his and Nawaz’s chemistry was in sync and both would give preference to economy over conflict. They forgot about his background, his brought up and mindset which he displayed during his 13 years rule in Gujarat State. Besides the 2002 pogrom, he assiduously promoted Hindutva in his State.

Not only he was groomed by infamous RSS to wear the crown, he was backed by corporate sector and senior officers of Indian armed forces and many joined his party. He has been chosen with a specific Pakistan driven agenda since Pakistan is in the eye of the storm and is the square peg in round hole which doesn’t fit into the security calculus of US, Israel and India.

images-59Modi’s performance has been exactly what had been predicted. Unlike Nawaz’s signals of friendship, right from the time of his coronation ceremony, Modi’s acts towards Pakistan have been offensive in nature. He is on record having stated that he will cause ‘pain’ to Pakistan. Scheduled meeting of foreign secretaries to resume dialogue was abruptly and haughtily cancelled on the plea that Pakistan’s High Commissioner in Delhi had hurt the sensitivities of Indians by meeting a Hurriyat leader. Highlighting unresolved Kashmir issue in the UN by Nawaz irked Modi. Soon after, temperature along the LoC was heated up, which still persists. For the first time, Working Boundary in Sialkot Sector has been brashly brought under intense fire causing lot of human casualties and damage to property and forcing locals to shift to safer places.

Like most high profile terror attacks in Pakistan, RAW was certainly behind suicide attack on Wagah check post in November 2014 where spectators were the target. Gruesome attack on Army Public School in Peshawar was again the doing of RAW since runaway Fazlullah and Wali Muhammad (alias Omar Khalid Khurasani) take dictation from RAW and Afghan Intelligence. Mobile phone conversation between the seven-member kill-team and mastermind in Kunar who was connected with Indian Embassy in Kabul was intercepted by ISI and the whole script was taken along by Gen Raheel Sharif and DG ISI and presented to authorities in Kabul as a solid proof of RAW-Fazlullah nexus.

 

16th December was chosen with a purpose since it had great significance for India. 43 years ago, India had brutally sliced Pakistan into two. Apart from martyring 34 teenagers and injuring 125, two lady teachers were burnt to death in front of the students by the terrorists. Resort to burning of women is handiwork of Hindus who worship fire, resort to Satti, carryout marriage ritual around fire, feel no hesitation in throwing children into fire.

 

Firing upon two Punjab Rangers soldiers after inviting them for a flag meeting and then trying to carry away the injured who later succumbed to injuries was a calculated scheme to prepare a case that Pak security forces were involved in cross border terrorism in Kashmir. A Pakistani fishing boat in high seas was dubbed as a terror boat.    Indian xenophobia was timed with Operation Zarb-e-Azb, and it was not difficult to decipher that Pak Army’s success in uprooting the last bastion of TTP in North Waziristan (NW) is not to the liking of India and she seems desperate to disrupt the progress of military operation and discredit Pak Army.

India refuses to get out of Mumbai drama and insists that it had been planned by terrorists in Pakistan and wants them to be punished. This is in spite of the fact that India has been unable to produce evidence to corroborate her allegations and also the hard fact that senior officials of Manmohan regime had revealed that it was an in-house false flag operation. Bhagwan worshipping and Marhatti speaking Ajmal Kasab was quietly hanged inside the prison courtyard without anyone else meeting him. Indian Court sentenced him to death without conclusive evidence merely to cool down the tempers of Hindus. Same excuse was given after hanging Kashmiri Afzal Guru, falsely implicated in attack on Indian Parliament in December 2001.                           

Extraordinary success of Operation Zarb-e-Azb in dismantling RAW trained TTP terrorist network in NW-Tirah/Bara as well as Haqqani and Hafiz Gul Bahadur networks, planned return of IDPs to NW next month, lifting of moratorium on hanging and commencement of hangings of convicts, establishment of military courts to carryout speedy trials of terrorists, Pakistani nation backing the Army to defeat and root out terrorism, withdrawal of ISAF from Afghanistan without achieving any objective and leaving behind a huge mess, changed perceptions of Ashraf Ghani led regime in Kabul towards Pakistan and growing Pak-Afghan military/intelligence cooperation to jointly tackle terrorism, emergent trust of the US in Pakistan’s civil and military leadership, growth of Pak-China strategic cooperation in building economic corridor/Gawadar and battling energy crisis, China, duly encouraged by USA, playing a pro-active role in  Afghanistan, Pakistan helping China’s Envoy to meet Afghan Taliban delegation in Peshawar and then facilitating a meeting in Beijing, Pak-Russia defence deal and latter’s decision to sell combat helicopters to Pakistan, and last but not least sudden demise of sit-ins are some of the recent developments which are repugnant for India.

Ongoing escalation of tension along the LoC and working boundary in Sialkot sector, sudden rise of terror activities in Balochistan (three in this month so far) and false flag operations are frantic attempts by baffled India to distract the attention of Pakistan government and Army towards eastern border. All her efforts to snare Pakistan seems to be failing and it looks like that India is falling into the pit she had dug for Pakistan.

Song of terrorism directed against Pakistan which was continuously sung in chorus by Indo-US-Afghan grouping for many years thrilled India the most. So was the ‘do more’ mantra. Modi wants to reinvent the song of Pak-bashing. Continuation of war on terror suits India the most since she can strike any sensitive target through TTP militants and also keep one-thirds of Pak Army embroiled in guerrilla war. Modi’s team was assiduously working to cook up a drama that could bring tears in the eyes of Obama during his forthcoming visit to India. India had succeeded in making Bill Clinton tearful in March 2000 on an engineered Chittisinghpura massacre in occupied Kashmir and Obama was made grief-stricken on his last visit to India in November 2010 over the concocted Mumbai drama.  

However, to the utter frustration of India, her strategic partners USA and Afghanistan are no more interested in playing the Indian dirty game against Pakistan because of their compulsions. John Kerry on his recent visit to Delhi confronted Indian leadership with concrete evidence of RAW-Fazlullah connection and asked Modi to tame Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval who had audaciously confessed using TTP terrorists to destabilize Pakistan from Afghan soil. The evidence which Kerry carried had been provided to the US by Gen Raheel on his last visit to Washington.

Gen Raheel had been forthright in reminding the US Generals and policy makers that having carried out across the board operation in NW, it was now the turn of the US to reciprocate by ‘doing more’ and showing results. He reminded them of the presence of Baloch rebel leaders based in Washington promoting separatism in Balochistan. He stopped saying that otherwise he will be compelled to say that “either the US is complicit or is inefficient’. Kerry is not the first American official to reveal India’s clandestine operations against Pakistan. Earlier on, Gen McChrystal and Chuck Hegel had also accused India of exporting terrorism to Pakistan.

Operation in Kunar by ANA against Fazlullah group and declaration of Fazlullah as a global terrorist by the US are other bombshells fallen on India. Yet another upsetting development is Gen Raheel’s meetings with top British civil/military leaders in London and he pressing them to stop foreign paid fugitives Harbyar Marri and Sulaiman Khan from fuelling terrorism in Balochistan and also help in reining in Brahamdagh Bugti in Geneva. They were also reminded of the UK based Hizbul Tahrir linked with al-Qaeda and Da’esh, which has its tentacles in Pakistan as well.      

Mercifully, baleful activities of India have not deterred Pakistan from its course of defeating terrorism. It has given a befitting reply to India’s aggressive posturing in Kashmir and has pooh-poohed her usual black mailing/coercive tactics. It is however, very important to fully expose the ugly face of India and to make all out efforts to get her subversive activities from Afghan soil closed. In this regard, efforts made by Gen Raheel and Lt Gen Rizwan should be followed up aggressively at the foreign office, diplomatic and media levels as well. The world community must be asked to hold India accountable for playing a lead role in fomenting terrorism in the region, killing well over 50,000 and injuring 200,000 Pakistanis, wanton destruction of property and strategic assets like PC-3 Orion and AWACs and made to pay the price for inflicting tens of thousands cuts on the body of Pakistan. It is high time to declare RAW a rogue outfit and to collar it.   

The writer is a retired Brig, defence analyst/columnist/author of five books, Member Executive Council PESS, Executive Director Measac Research Centre, Member Board of Directors TFP. [email protected]

 

 

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The Western Arrogance and the War at Doorsteps by Dr Firoz Mahboob Kamal

Posted by admin in CARTOONS, Criminals, CROOKS, Global Islam, International Law, Islam: The Universal Message of Peace, Makaar Dushman, Muslim Haters, Pakistan Law on January 20th, 2015

The Western Arrogance and the War at Doorsteps

Dr Firoz Mahboob Kamal

 

The hate campaign

The killings at Charlie Hebdo had sent powerful shock waves all over the West. Now the security threats and fear run very high everywhere. It seems that not only the hateful Islamophobic cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo, but also the politicians and the security officers of the West have turned pathologically paranoid. Even an unattended bag in a railway or underground station is enough to paralyse the traffic system in London, Paris, Berlin, Brussels, Rome and other cities of the West for hours. Now the governments are planning to check every internet mail of every individual. Hence nothing is private for any man or woman. The western imperialists used to take their wars of occupation and plunder to foreign lands; hence their homes were safe. But now the war has arrived to their doorsteps. They have withdrawn troops from Algeria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Mali and other third world countries, but the war is not leaving them. Now they are taking full war preparation to save their own streets. The French President François Hollande has announced that he will deploy 10,500 soldiers all over France to fight the Islamists. Former French President Sarkozi declared “war of civilisation” in response to attack on freedom. Thus, the whole western world is quickly turning into a huge and hot war zone.
 
War never starts all on a sudden. Like a disease, it has its own ongoing moral, ideological and social pathology. War needs ideological ignition in people’s psyche. Such a job is done by the ideological warriors. In the past, the war mongering crusaders did that job massively against the Muslims. Hence so-called the holy war (the crusade) could sustain for more than hundred years. Nurturing such hatred has been a classic political art and part of the genocidal warfare in Europe. So in comparison to other people in other continents, the Europeans made distinctive history of cruelty in ethnic cleansing worldwide. Hence Jews in Europe and Muslims in Spain are not the only victims of European. The Red Indians and Incas in America, the Aborigines in Australia and the Maoris in New Zealand met the same fate. In modern times, Hitler and his cronies, the colonialists and the imperialists did the same crime but the scientific skill. The killings of more than 75 million in two World Wars indeed draw the pathological roots from the past. Now the same old disease shows signs of violent remission. The job has now been taken over by the Islamophobic columnists, cartoonist, writers, warlords, the defence industry and the politicians. The West has now great number of such venomous people in their midst. And now the target is Islam and its prophet. Hence the crusade that was started by George W Bush in 2001 now gets enough fuel for its robust sustenance.
Malicious hatred against the target people is indeed the requisite precursor for a brutal war. The German politician, writer and the press nurtured such hatred against the Jews before the World War II. Hitler was not a lone performer; he had a huge army of collaborators in that crime. Hence killing of 6 million Jews on an industrial scale became morally acceptable to the German. Now the tide is running against the Muslims. And the now shows the same readiness to endorse the most heinous crime against Muslims. Wit moral death does, people can’t see crime as crime. The symptoms of such moral death of the West are now quite manifest. For example, Gaza and Kobani are bombed to rubbles by Israel and the US. More than 2000 innocent children, women and men are slaughtered in Gaza. Bombs were dropped even on the UN run schools. But the US and her European partners are not ready to consider such Israeli brutalities as war crimes. The US didn’t allow the UN Security Council to pass a resolution condemning such crime. With the same moral death, the US could drop 2 atom bombs in cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and now financing and patronising Israeli barbarity with its all brutal dimension. They do not like that such crimes should go to the International Criminal Courts for the prosecution.
 

The double standard

The abuse of freedom

download-2-2In the west, all are not equal to enjoy the same liberty. They have given full liberty to magazines like Charlie Hebdo to cross all limits to spread pornographic slander against Islam’s great prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). The Western leaders also announce their full solidarity with those slanderers by chanting “je suis Charlie” (I am Charlie). But they don’t allow others to chant “je suis Palestinian” (I am Palestinian). Hence the British MP Mr David Ward from East Bradford got wide condemnation for expressing his strong anger at the arrival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Paris march on 11/01/15 and sending a twitter message “je suis Palestinian” (I am Palestinian). He was condemned not only by the Israeli Ambassador at London and but also by the Islamophobic British media and the British politicians. He is the only exceptional member of the British Parliament who could announce, “If I was in Gaza, I would have fired rocket to Israel.” For such moral stance at the time of Israel’s Gaza bombing, he was rebuked by the British Prime Minister and other political leaders of both Tory and Labour parties. He was forced by his party’s parliamentary whip to withdraw the original statement. Such hypocrisy in the British politics is not hidden, rather broadly practised to support its own illegal creation of Israel!

 
The Western leaders have given the full impunity to the Israeli warlords to commit whatever crimes they wish against the Palestinians. The US, the UK, France and other Western countries exercised the same unfettered liberty in killing Muslims in million in Algeria, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and other occupied countries. Millions of Palestinians are driven out of their homes and forced to live in refugee camps for more than 60 years. Does it need to be saint to condemn such crimes? But the West’s moral conscience stands fully insensitive to such horrific crimes; hence they never condemned these as war crimes. Rather they punish those who condemn and protest against such brutalities. They label them as Islamic extremists. The French black comedian Diendonne didn’t take any weapon in hand to kill anyone. He only exercised freedom of speech to protest against the Israeli brutalities in the occupied Palestine. For that, he has been put in prisons. Whereas the newspapers and magazines like Charlie Hebdo of Paris, London’s Daily Mail and Daily Sun and many others of Europe enjoy full liberty to inject more venom to the western psyche.
 

The state-sponsored slander

Charlie Hebdo recently published its post-attack first edition with another slanderous cartoon against the prophet Muhammad (peace upon him) on the cover page. It is indeed a state-sponsored million-copy edition to rub more salt on the wounded psyche of the Muslims. Printing satirical cartoon is not the only staple of Charlie Hebdo. It is not neutral either –as it claims. It is conducting an ugly and continuous propaganda war against Islam’s core teachings like sharia, jihad and khilafa. Its toxic slander against Islam’s greatest prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) knows no moral or ethical limit. Publishing most pornographic vulgar cartoon against this great man of the human history is in fact the main passion of the cartoonists. 
Those who chanted “je suis Charlie” (I am Charlie), they too, made their massage louder. They announced unequivocally that like the dead cartoonists, they too rejoice such pornographic ridicule against Islam’s prophet. Toxic cartoons are being used as weapon of ideological war against Islam and its iconic characters. Can a man with little respect for this great prophet spread such venomous filth? By publishing such pornographic slanders, these cartoonists didn’t exercise freedom of expression. In fact, they exercised freedom of abuse. How a Muslim can support Charlie Hebdo? A Muslim must be an obedient follower of Muhammad (peace be upon him) in all aspects of his life. He must love him more than his own life. It is a Divine requirement. Hence ridiculing the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is indeed ridiculing every Muslim. Hence, such vulgar bigotry and poisonous slander can only draw a country to an unending blood-letting war. France with its 6.5 million strong Muslims is indeed moving fast to such a war. How a country can deserve any peace or tranquillity with such slanderous posture against 6.5 Muslims? It shows signs that the war will not remain confined within the French boundary. In neighbouring Belgium, two Muslims are killed on 16/1/15, and many more are arrested. France government too has proven to be  very prompt to add more fuel to the fire. The French parliament voted by 488 votes to one to launch military campaign against Islamic State. The French aircraft carrier has already moved nearer to the Syrian shore of the Mediterranean to facilitate the US air strikes against Islamic State. It is reported that about 3 thousand European Muslims have already joined the Islamic State to fight the ongoing war in Syria and Iraq. Many more thousands of these jihadists are prevented from joining the Islamic State by imposing strict travel restriction in the border outposts and the airports. Now France has opened new frontiers for these enthusiastic Islamist warriors on its own soil.

 

Solidarity with the hate campaign

Charlie Hebdo is not alone in its ugly hate campaign against Islam and its prophet (peace be upon him). The western leaders displayed their full solidarity with it. More than 40 heads of states marched in the streets of Paris on 11/01/15 to show such solidarity. The western leaders talk about fighting war for protecting western values and culture. But what is western value and culture? Do the Muslims need any lecture to learn the western values and culture? Didn’t they display those values and culture during the last several centuries all over the world? Is it not the values and culture of military aggression, occupation, colonisation, imperialism, ethnic cleansing, slave-trading, genocide, World Wars, gas chambers, dropping of atom bombs, waterboarding, Guantanamo Bay, Abu Gharib, Sabra, Satilla and Gaza? They killed 75 million people only in two World Wars! Who else can match their brutality? Their war machines are still not withdrawn from their army bases in the Muslim lands.
The western leaders talk about fighting terrorism. Do the Muslims need any lecture to understand terrorism too? The Muslims are the worst victims of terrorism since the advent of Western colonialism in their countries. Most of the Muslim lands were occupied and millions lost lives by the hand of these terrorists. Only in Palestine, more than 4 million people are made homeless by these terrorists –fully sponsored by the West’s money, weapons and diplomacy. Terrorising people with lethal weapons for political and military gains is no more a crime of a few thugs. It is the sophisticated war tactics of the super powers. These state terrorists of the West are the real threat against the world peace. They are charged with deep hatred against Islam, Islam’s prophet and the common Muslims. Hence they could easily show their solidarity with the hate mongering cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo.
The military occupation of Muslim lands, the plunder of its resources and de-Islamisation of its people are the main objectives of the anti-Muslim state terrorists. Such imperialist objectives are so much integrated in the imperialists’ culture and values that even most barbaric manifestation of the state terrorism like war for occupation, destruction of cities, cleansing of native population received not only the popular support, but also get voluntary participation of the people for its prolonged continuation. This is why the quick occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan gave a huge boost to President George W Bush’s popularity in the USA. Only his utter failure to enforce the US grip in those occupied lands and numerous body bags of the US soldiers brought his disgrace –and not the occupation itself. The US people didn’t expect such disgrace of their citizens in any foreign land. Due to the same western mind-set, Israel –one of the most barbaric countries in human history and the West’s ugly colonial legacy, enjoy so much support in the West. For the same reason, 4 million people marched in the street of Paris to support Charlie Hebdo’s hate campaign against the prophet of Islam (peace be umpon him) and the Islamists. Indeed, here lies the main problem of the west. The anti-Islamic hatred is indeed embedded in their mind-set. Hence for any peace, they do not need more wars, rather needs a 180 degree paradigm shift in their mind-set. They need more home works to change their understanding about Islam and Muslims. The current state of poisonous hatred against Islam and Muslims could only generate more Charlie Hebdo cartoonists, more Abu Gharib, more Guantanamo Bay, more water boarding and more torture cells. In such milieu of abuse, the jihadists will enjoy fertile breeding grounds. The US and its ally have spent several trillion of dollars in wars and war industries. They fought war for 13 years in Afghanistan and for 8 years in Iraq. At the end, they couldn’t win any war, rather returned back with humiliation. The month-long bombing by the US, the UK, the French, the Australian and the Jordanian bombers couldn’t bring any victory for the coalition forces even in a small town of Kobani. If they think that few thousands Kurd secularist mercenaries or Shia militias will do their war against the Islamists, they are indeed living in fools’ paradise!
 

Fake humanity

The leaders of the Western countries talk a lot about humanity and higher moral values. But there exist monumental evidences to prove such claim fake. Creation of Israel on an illegally occupied land by the colonial West and their continual support for its land grabbing genocidal war are enough to prove that. What a disgrace, the original resident of the Palestine are driven out of their ancestral homes to make space for houses for the European and American Jews! The Palestinian refugees are denied access to their own land. There exists no international institution where they can seek justice. The UN Security Council itself is under the occupation of the usurper imperialists. It has given recognition to creation of such illegal state on illegally occupied land. What an irony, any effort to reclaim the occupied land is labelled as terrorism! The leaders of these countries showed silence in remembrance of the dead cartoonist of Charlie Hebdo. The Western imperialists have killed more than a million people in Iraq and Afghanistan in their recent wars of occupation. But, did they observe a single moment of silence in memory of those dead souls? France herself killed 1.5 million Algerians in its war of occupation in the sixties. Did they pay any homage to those innocent people who were brutally killed there? The crime of these innocent Algerians was nothing else but the genuine demand for freedom from the colonial rule. Recently the Christians killed thousands of Muslims in Central African Republic. Where is the solidarity of the Western leaders with those innocent victims of the genocide? Since the victims are Muslims, didn’t they deserve any respect and sympathy?  They chanted chorus “Je suis Charlie” (I am Charlie). What does that mean? Do they say that like the abusive Charlie Hebdo, I am also an equal abuser and hater of the prophet of Islam (peace be upon him).  They are not ready to retreat an inch from that abusive path. They showed full solidarity not only with Charlie Hebdo, but also continue to show full solidarity with the brutal Israeli killers. Hence the butcher of Gaza -the Israeli PM was cordially welcomed in their midst. Only due to such crippling moral disease, they could sponsor the illegal creation of Israel in occupied land of the Palestinian
Mr Gerald Biard, the chief editor of Charlie Hebda who was on holiday when the attacks occurred wrote, “Charlie is an atheist paper, is accomplishing more miracles than all saints and prophets.” (The Guardian 14/01/15). What is that miracle that the editor claims for? Of course, they made a history. About 4 million Europeans chanted the chorus “je suis Charlie” (I am Charlie) only in Paris; many more millions did the same in other parts of Europe. But it is not a miracle. It is the disease of Europe. It is the ugliest solidarity with the virulent hate campaigners. It is indeed the recipe of further holocaust. The West could commit so many ugly crimes in the past only because of such moral ill health. They could kill more than 75 million only in two World Wars. They could also kill many more million in post-World Wars regional wars as occurred in Korea, Vietnam Afghanistan and Iraq.  About 2 hundred thousand were slaughtered in their own backyard in Bosnia. But how many Europeans came out to the street to condemn those crimes? How many Europeans marched in the street chanting “je suis Bosnian” (I am Bosnian)? How many said “je suis Palestine (I am Palestine). The Whole Muslim population were ethnically cleansed from Spain. The European people never came to street to show solidarity with those ill-fated victims of the wars of ethnic cleansing. Such ethnic or religious cleansing never happened against the non-Muslims even in Islam’s heart lands like Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine; more than 10-15% of the population in these heart lands remain non-Muslim even during last 1400 years’ Muslim rule. In Lebanon it is more than 30-35%. But the ethnic annihilation in Europe during so-called Holy Roman Empire was complete that the percentage of non-Christian in Europe was not even 00.001%. The same happened after the Christian victory against the Muslims in Spain. In the name of religion, such crime never happened in a Muslim country. The Muslims never had any phobia against non-Muslims, and neither had the non-Muslims against Muslims in those Muslim lands. But now, along with the Muslims, the Christians too, are leaving these Muslim countries. The US invasion and its massive bombing campaign have made the Muslim countries most unsafe for everybody. The bombs do not see the faith, only see the targets.

The abuse of freedom

Some of the cartoonists claimed that they are not against Islam; they are only against the extremist ideologies of Islam. They argue that they make satire only of prophet (peace be upon him)’s character, not of Islam. It is a sheer lie and ridicule. The prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the embodiment of Islam’s core belief and ideologies. He showed his followers how to practise full package of Islam. Can anyone separate the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)’s character from the ideology of Islam? Establishing Islamic state, continuing dawa (propagation), practising full sharia, launching jihad, encouraging people to embrace martyrdom, implementing shura (counselling), hadud (sharia judgments) and levying jijiya on non-Muslims were the parts of his life. These are his ideologies. Hence ridiculing the prophet’s character is nothing else than ridiculing the ideologies of Islam. Did any newspaper in any Muslim country ever showed such abusive attitude against the great prophet like Jesus Christ (Allah’s blessing be on him) or Moses (Allah’s blessing be on him too)?

The Western leaders claim that they are fighting terrorism. But the truth is otherwise. The Muslims are the worst victims of state terrorism. About 3 thousand people were killed in 9/11. But the US has killed more than million as a result of the war.  Very recently on 16/01/15, the US bombers killed more than 50 civilians in Iraq. (RT TV). What can be more terrorism than this? Both in the past and in the present, the Muslims became the worst victims of state terrorism in Algeria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, India, Egypt, Syria, Myanmar, Central Africa and Sri Lanka? Terrorism is no more a crime of a few thugs. It is now the full-scale warfare of the arrogant military powers to control the world politics in their own hand. The US war in Iraq and Afghanistan and Israeli war in Gaza, Egyptian Army’s manslaughter in Cairo, Alexandra and other cities are indeed the worst terrorist acts that one can perceive. Non-state terrorist can’t think of terrorism of such magnitude.

 

The only option

Wolves can’t enjoy safe haven even in caves. They too need protection to escape the imminent extinction. The same is true with the imperialists. They have done enough crimes all over the world. They have taken genocidal wars to the distant corners of the world. They have dropped atom bombs, napalm bombs, cluster bombs, chemical bombs, missiles and drones on the head of the weak. Now the war stands at their front doors. After spending a trillions of dollar, the US and its ally didn’t expect such a fate. Hence they are filled with extreme anger and frustration. Anger of the innocent victims has all reached to the explosion level. Further killing or torturing those who are already ready to embrace martyrdom is not going to solve the problem. Even an average European understands this new reality. The march of about 4 million Europeans in Paris is indeed the demonstration of such fear. It has little to do with the little known vulgar Charlie Hebdo. It is not to show the solidarity with the 12 people who are killed in the attacks. While 6 million Jews were incinerated in gas chambers, no one marched in the street of a European city to show solidarity with the victims. In fact, the Europeans didn’t face any war at their doorsteps from the Jews at that time. But now the situation is different. They sense war looming in their midst.
Now in the West, there exists only one option to have a peaceful co-existence of Muslims and the non-Muslims. It is not possible to do the same ethnic cleansing again on the European soil –as was done in Spain in 15th century. Now more than 20 million Muslims live in Europe; 6.5 million only in France. May be, some xenophobic far-rightists may still prefer that genocidal route. But the only feasible option stands otherwise. Instead of abusing 1.5 billion Muslims for their fundamental beliefs, they must reconcile with them. Sharia, khilafa, jijiya and hadud are not issues in the West. But those basics must be allowed to be practised in Muslim majority countries – as were practised in all Muslim countries till the West’s colonial occupation. The West must not create blockade against the resurrection of Islam’s most crucial political institution like khilafa. Such blockade will make the war inevitable.
Like the deformed Christian or the Jews, the Muslims do not enjoy such option to be deformed or reformed. Such deformation or reformation is nothing else than deviation from the siratul mustaqeem  -hence direct route to hellfire. Since the prophet of the Islam (peace be upon him) was the fundamentalist believer and practitioner of the Qur’anic Islam, every Muslim must try to be the Islamic fundamentalist of the same degree. It is not a choice, but an obligation. The West must reconcile with the Muslims’ such core belief. Otherwise the clash of civilisation is unavoidable. But it appears that the West has deliberately taken the route of hostility with the prophet’s Islam. They have already declared their solidarity with the hate campaigner against Islam’s great prophet (peace be upon him). “Je suis Charlie” is indeed the war cry of such hostility.
In Islam, practising sharia is a binding obligation. Whoever ignores this obligation is severely condemned with three derogatory labels from Allah Suhhana Wa Ta’ala: he is a kafir, zalem and fasik. The Holy Qur’an reveals: “Whoever does not make judicial judgement according to the revealed laws (sharia) is a kafir (disbeliever) … a zalem (oppressor) ..and a fasik (sinner). (Sura Maida: verse 44, 45 and 47). Hence, there is no room for the secular laws and judiciary in a Muslim country.  The presence of Christians, Jews, Buddhist, Hindus, atheist, polytheists and the followers of other beliefs is not new under the Muslim rule. It has a history of more than 14 hundred years. In those days, the believers of other faiths could understand the Muslims’ religious obligation; hence these non-Muslim compatriots never put any hindrance against the implementation of sharia, khilafa, shura, hadud and other Islamic fundamentals. Even in countries where the Muslims were in minority like India and Spain, they didn’t protest against the practice of sharia either. Instead of any interference in the Muslims’ religious affairs, they opted for peaceful co-existence.
 

The arrogance

But such wisdom of the past does not exist in contemporary Western leaders. Their economic, military and technological might made them arrogant as well as incompatible with the Muslims’ beliefs and practice. The Western powers are putting obstacles against implementation of sharia even in countries where more than 90% people are Muslims. As if the sharia is their own domestic issue! After the occupation of Afghanistan, the German Foreign Minister declared in Public that sharia will not be allowed to return back to Afghanistan. Is it not a blatant interference in Muslims’ internal affairs? Where is freedom of the Afghan people to decide their own law? The US president Obama labelled sharia as medieval barbarity. What a sheer arrogance? Can a Muslim surrender to such anti-Islamic arrogance?  
The West’s stubborn hostility against Islam’s fundamental belief is indeed the cause of current impasse. They have already launched a civilizational war against the Muslims to stop them practising prophet’s Islam. They want Muslims to be fully de-Islamised and deformed from the Qur’anic Islam. They find it the only option to peacefully co-exist with the Muslims. Hence demand for Islam’s reformation cum deformation is very high in the Western camp. The tyrant rulers and the secularist intellectuals of the Muslim countries have already taken that enemy route. Hence they are equally inimical against sharia and khilafa like the non-Muslims. Many of them like Iraqi and Syrian Kurds, Iraqi and Irani Shia, the Egyptian military, Bangladeshi secularists, the Pakistani Army have already joined their rank to kill the Islamists. The Western leaders must understand that the original Islam has nothing to reconcile with the corrupt beliefs of the Egyptian, Saudi, Qatari, Bahraini, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or other secularist tyrants of the Muslim world. By making coalition with these de-Islamised despots, the West is not going to gain anything in their war against Islam. Rather, such alliance would only re-inforce their image as the enemies of Islam. Such an approach will only add more fuel to the ongoing war. 18/01/15

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US imposed war now our own war by Brig Gen(R) Asif Haroon Raja

Posted by admin in Afghan -Taliban-India Axis, AFGHANISTAN, AFGHANISTAN BASED RAW TRAINED TALIBAN ACTIONS, Afghanistan Hell, Afghanistan-Hell for Western Troops, Afghanistan-Pakistan's Shield, CROSS BORDER KILLINGS BY INDIA, Defense, India Global Exporter of Terrorism, India Sponsored Taliban Terrorism in Pakistan, INDIA SPONSORED TERRORISM IN KARACHI, INDIA STATE SPONSORED TERRORISM IN PAKISTAN, INDIA TRAINED SUICIDE BOMBERS FROM AFGHANISTAN on January 7th, 2015

US imposed war now our own war

Pakistan is burning in the flames of war on terror since 2003. Fratricidal war has claimed 55, 973 human lives and the numbers of injured run into hundreds of thousands. This appalling figure of casualties owing to over 5000 bomb blasts, hundreds of suicide and terrorist attacks surpasses the total fatalities suffered in the 1948, 1965 and 1971 wars and local conflicts with India. While wars/conflicts with India were of very short duration, this war is being continuously fought for over a decade and still there are no signs of its termination. It has given birth to more than 60 terrorist groups and all have married up to fight the security forces and cause harm to Pakistan. The war has caused Pakistan an economic loss of over $80 billion while the social trauma suffered by the people is incalculable.
The war on terror was started by the US and its allies in Afghanistan in October 2001 but was treacherously shifted into Pakistan. The ISAF comprising military contingents from over 40 countries handed over the security to 350,000 strong Afghan Army and Police, trained and equipped by the US and British military trainers on December 28, 2014. Although ‘Operation Endurance’ has come to a humiliating end since it failed to achieve any of the stated objectives, the US has announced launching a fresh operation codenamed ‘Resolute’ from 01 January 2015 onwards with the help of Afghan security forces backed by 12000 residual force stationed in 8 military bases. This force is likely to stay on till end 2016 in accordance with Bilateral Security Agreement and in return the US and its allies would provide $8 billion economic/military assistance annually to bolster Ashraf Ghani’s not so stable regime and to keep Taliban out of power if they refuse to share power.
This step has been taken grudgingly in the backdrop of the wide scale criticism the US had to face on account of abandoning Afghanistan in 1989 in haste after all its objectives were achieved by the Afghan Mujahideen assisted by Pakistan. Leaving them in a lurch without forming a broad based interim government and helping in reconstruction of devastated country resulted in bloody internecine war between various Mujahideen groups in Afghanistan. It is generally opined that but for the US blunder, Afghanistan may have become a peaceful and prosperous country. This great betrayal bred frustration, resentment, anger and hatred against USA.
Bloody civil war from 1990 to 1994 gave rise to war lordism, religious extremism and also gave birth to Al-Qaeda under Osama bin Laden, who was the blue-eyed boy of CIA during Afghan Jihad. Although the Taliban stabilized the country after taking over in 1996, but the fallout effects of the nine-year war and the instability of the civil war in Afghanistan was entirely borne by Pakistan. Presence of over three million Afghan refugees added to the socio-economic burden and security problems. The democratic era from October 1988 till October 1999 remained enmeshed in internal squabbles and paid little heed to control arms smuggling, drug peddling and sectarianism duly propped up by Saudi Arabia and Iran. Economic sanctions levied by the US in 1990 had also impacted the democratic rule. When PML-N government started to deliver by dealing with sectarian threat firmly, it was axed by Gen Musharraf on October 11, 1999.
9/11 changed the geopolitics of the world. The whole focus shifted towards terrorism and Pakistan was sucked into the GWOT. After occupying Afghanistan with the help of Pakistan, the US and its strategic allies cleverly shifted the direction of terrorism towards Pakistan under a calculated program. To start with FATA which was peaceful was made restive by forcing Pakistan to break the 1948 Agreement with the tribesmen by sending regular troops into South Waziristan. Insurgency was then ignited in Balochistan which was also peaceful. Nawabs of Bugti, Marri and Mengal tribes readily agreed to play the foreign game.  KP and other parts of Pakistan were subsequently made turbulent.
Whereas Pakistan was made an ally to fight GWOT in return for monetary benefits, in actuality it was a target. Pakistan was on the hit-list of India, Israel and USA after it had conducted nuclear tests in May 1988 to neutralize Indian nuclear belligerence. In fact, India considers Pakistan a thorn in its flesh. Reason of its undiminished animus is Pakistan’s principled stand to maintain good neighborly relations based on equality and refusal to accept Indian hegemony. India also resents Pakistan’s stance on disputed Kashmir, which it foolishly claims to be its integral part. Armed freedom movement in occupied Kashmir since 1989 keeps Indian leaders scared. They keep devising Chankyan strategies to maintain illegal control over occupied Kashmir. They also resort to lies and engineer false flag operations to keep Pakistan on the defensive.
indianconsulatesinafghansitan1Ever since India became a strategic partner of the US, Indian leaders have been constantly whispering into the ears of US leaders that Pakistan is abetting and aiding terrorism in Kashmir and that it should be declared a terrorist state and Kashmiri fighters seeking right of self-determination as terrorists. New laws framed on terrorism after 9/11 provided an opportunity to India to paint Kashmiri freedom movement as terrorism and to project Pakistan military/ISI as abettors of cross border terrorism.
Installation of India friendly regime under Hamid Karzai in Kabul by the US made it easy for India to undertake covert war against Pakistan from Afghan soil at a massive level. RAW duly beefed up by 17 Indian intelligence units, four Consulates and Embassy was backed by CIA, Mossad, MI-6, BND, Afghan government/intelligence to destabilize, denuclearize, de-Islamize and balkanize Pakistan. Biggest intelligence centre was set up at Sehra Neward north of Kabul where heads of six intelligence agencies sat under one roof to cook up plans to undermine Pakistan, Russia, China, Iran, Middle East and also to gain influence over resource rich Central Asian region. Ironically, ISI was excluded although Pakistan is immediate neighbor of Afghanistan and was nominated as front line state. 
RAW was made the overall in-charge to conduct clandestine war against Pakistan because of the expertise it had gained in 1971 East Pakistan insurgency, Balochistan insurgency in 1970s and sabotage/subversion in Pakistan in 1980s. RAW had a hand in training militant wing of MQM and Al-Zulfiqar. TTP in FATA, BLA, BRA and BLF in Balochistan were raised, funded, equipped and trained by foreign agencies to achieve their sinister objectives. RAW established 70 training camps in Afghanistan along Pak-Afghan border. It also helped Baloch insurgents in establishing over 60 Farari camps in interior Balochistan.
In FATA, CIA and FBI established outposts on the pretext of nabbing al-Qaeda runaways. On the quiet the two agencies established an outfit called Spider Web, whose task was to kill all pro-Pakistan Maliks, elders and clerics, shunt out civil administration and create space for anti-Pakistan TTP to take control over FATA. Over 400 were gunned down. ISI was pushed to the back seat and intelligence acquisition and dissemination taken over by CIA. Even immigration on airports in major cities was taken over by FBI. In 2008, Blackwater got established in Islamabad, Peshawar, Lahore, Quetta and Karachi. It became easier for RAW to outsource this outfit for performing its dirty works. While Kerry Lugar Bill facilitated large numbers of NGOs with a precise agenda to step in, Pakistan’s Ambassador in Washington Husain Haqqani helped thousands of CIA agents and Special Operation operatives to sneak in without ISI clearance in 2010-11.
On one hand trained and well equipped terrorists were launched to create chaos and fear in Pakistan and also hit specified targets like GHQ, ISI set ups, PC-3 Orion, AWACs, airports, on the other hand Pak Army was belittled and accused of being either complicit or not doing enough. Pakistan was repeatedly told by the US to do more and India and Afghanistan joined the chorus. To make their coercive tactics more biting, an orchestrated defamation campaign was launched by Indo-US-western-Israeli media. Pakistan was dubbed as nursery of terrorism, most dangerous place in the world and a failing state. Its nuclear program was censured on the plea that it was vulnerable to fall into wrong hands because of lack of security. Idea behind multi-pronged bashing was to exhaust Pakistan socially, politically, economically and militarily, make it vulnerable to Indian aggression and force Islamabad to abandon its nuclear program in return for survival. India’s war terrorism is also part of the overall scheme to make Pakistan subservient.      
This discriminatory attitude against an ally which had put the security of the state at stake to fight the US dictated war on its own territory and against its own people and had sacrificed the most was most unfortunate. To rub salt in Pakistan’s wounds, the US continued to bestow India with all possible goodies despite the fact that it didn’t contribute a single soldier in the GWOT and created problems for ISAF. Likewise, the US continued to support highly corrupt, inept and unpopular regime of Karzai for 13 years.
Once the stark reality dawned upon the US leadership in December 2010 that ISAF was in no position to win the war and defeat was inevitable, it not only declared its drawdown plan starting July 2011 and ending in December 2014, but also established secret contacts with Taliban to arrive at a political settlement and ensure safe exit. This effort failed because of Karzai’s fickleness and US lack of sincerity. Pentagon didn’t like Obama’s decision and started selling a fake story that Taliban had been pushed on the back foot and sooner than later the pendulum would swing in ISAF’s favor. To hide its failings, Pakistan was chosen as the scapegoat and all its failings put in Pakistan’s basket. It was in this context that intense pressure was put on Pakistan to launch a major operation in North Waziristan. When Pakistan didn’t comply, it was punished by undertaking false flag operation in Abbottabad in May 2011 and then a revengeful attack on Salala border posts in November that year.  
Unlike Soviet forces which withdrew under Geneva Accord, ISAF troops have withdrawn without an agreement and leaving everything in a state of flux. Unlike Pak military’s brilliant successes against foreign supported militants in FATA and in Balochistan, the ISAF together with ANSF couldn’t achieve single battle victory against Afghan Taliban despite two troop surges and huge resources. Pakistan and not ISAF broke the back of Al-Qaeda by nabbing 600 of its leaders/operatives. All the societal vices that were doctored by Taliban during their five year rule under insalubrious circumstances have reappeared in a big way and Afghanistan has become the biggest narcotic state in the world. Despite investing $1.4 trillion, Afghanistan continues to grind in poverty and suffer from women disempowerment, illiteracy, corruption and insecurity. 65% Americans feel the war was needless.
While the US-NATO has lost the war, Pak Army under the valiant leadership of Gen Raheel Shareef has taken up the gauntlet to root out all manifestations of extremism and terrorism from Pakistan no matter what the cost. He has stated that losing war on terror is not an option. The Army had remained handicapped because of lack of political will, failure of civilian administration to take over secured areas, too many flaws in investigative and criminal justice system to prosecute and convict terrorists, ban on hanging, heavily politicized police, unproductive dharnas and above all foreign interference. Peshawar tragedy in which 132 children were martyred by fiends has galvanized the whole nation. Moratorium on hanging has been lifted and few terrorists hanged. Political/religious leaders stand behind the Army and have resolved to collectively fight the menace. Unanimously agreed upon 20-point Action Plan has been devised and committees formed to monitor progress. Despite initial reservations, all have agreed to amend the constitution and set up special military courts for 2 years to ensure speedy justice. These are need of the nation and not that of Army. Happily, Kabul has come on board and is willing to fully cooperate in fighting terrorism.  
To ensure 100% results, all concerned will have to perform on war footing. Politicians will have to display greater maturity and become role models by changing their lifestyle. Bureaucracy should shun its lethargic way of sitting over files and creating unnecessary impediments. The judiciary must come out of its hibernation and carryout in-house refurbishment to deliver evenhanded, cheap and speedy justice to all. The media should change its course and show greater patriotism and sense of responsibility. Civil administration should play its part more efficiently and honestly. Ulema and Mashaikhs should strive to bridge the religious divides. Academic circles must guide the youth towards productive channels and inculcating in them sense of nationalism. Last but not least, grievances of the have-nots must be addressed on priority.      
The writer is retired Brig, war veteran/defence analyst/columnist/author of five books, Director Measac Research Centre, Member oard of Directors TFP. [email protected]                   

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Gambling against Armageddon by Amb.Munir Akram, former Pakistan ambassador to the UN

Posted by admin in Afghan -Taliban-India Axis, AFGHANISTAN BASED RAW TRAINED TALIBAN ACTIONS, Afghanistan Hell, Afghanistan-Land of Backstabbers, CROSS BORDER KILLINGS BY INDIA, EXISTENTIAL THREAT TO INDIA, India Hall of Shame, India's Nuclear Proliferation, INDIA-AN EVIL NATION, INDIA-HO-- -- USE BUILT ON SAND AND COW DUNG, INDIA: THE EVIL HINDU EMPIRE, INDIAN AGENT NAWAZ SHARIF:FREE ARY, INDIAN ARMY CHIEF-TOKENISM TO APPEASE SIKH MINORITY, INDIAN GOVTS LIES EXPOSED, INDIAN SABRE RATTLING BITS THE DUST, INDIAN SCAMMERS AROUND THE GLOBE, INDIAN TERRORISM FROM CENTRAL ASIAN REPUBLICS, Makaar Dushman, Politics, Recent News on October 29th, 2014

Gambling against Armageddon

By

Munir Akram, former Pakistan ambassador to the UN | 

 

IN an opinion piece last year, Henry Kissinger observed that over the next couple of decades a nuclear war was likely to take place between India and Pakistan. The nuclear factor was in play in four major and one minor India-Pakistan crises: in 1987, 1990, 1998, 1999 and 2002.
 
In 1987, when an Indian army chief launched the Brasstacks military exercises along Pakistan’s exposed desert borders, Pakistan responded by deploying its forces in the north where India was vulnerable. Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s agreement to a mutual stand-down no doubt also took into account the informal threat from Islamabad to bomb India’s nuclear reactors in case Pakistan was attacked. (After the crisis ended, the Pakistan-India agreement not to attack each other’s nuclear facilities was jointly formulated in one day.)
 
In January 1990, when the anti-Indian insurgency erupted in Kashmir and India threatened Pakistan, a conflict was forestalled by US intervention. The US acted when it learnt that Pakistan had begun to arm its nuclear-capable aircraft.

The operation of mutual deterrence between India and Pakistan is being eroded.

armageddon21During the night of 26-27 May 1998 — the night before Pakistan conducted its nuclear explosions in response to India’s tests — Pakistani radar detected unidentified aircraft flying towards its territory. Islamabad issued warnings of instant retaliation to India and relayed these to the US and Israel. This may have been a false alarm; but it illustrates the danger of accidental conflict in the absence of real-time communications.
During the 1999 Kargil war, the nuclear dimension was implicit, given that the crisis occurred a year after the India-Pakistan nuclear tests.
 
During the 2002 general mobilisation by India and Pakistan, the director general of the Pakistan Armed Forces Special Plans Division enunciated its nuclear ‘doctrine’ in a news interview. The ‘doctrine’ envisaged that Pakistan would use nuclear weapons if: it was being militarily overwhelmed; its nuclear or strategic weapons or facilities were attacked; and it was subjected to an enemy blockade.
 
The projection of this doctrine, including at a UN news conference by this writer in July 2002, sparked a fall in the Indian Stock Exchange, the evacuation of foreign personnel and embassy families from New Delhi and a demarche by Indian business leaders to prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, and reportedly led to the Indian agreement for a mutual drawback of forces.
 
The operation of mutual deterrence displayed in 2002, however, is being eroded by several developments.
 
One, the conventional military balance is becoming progressively unfavourable to Pakistan. India is engaged in a major arms build-up. It is the world’s largest arms importer today. It is deploying advanced and offensive land, air and sea weapons systems. Pakistan’s conventional capabilities may not prove sufficient to deter or halt an Indian attack.
 
Two, India has adopted the Cold Start doctrine envisaging a rapid strike against Pakistan. This would prevent Pakistan from mobilising its conventional defence and thus lower the threshold at which Pakistan may have to rely on nuclear deterrence.
 
Three, Pakistan has had to deploy over 150,000 troops on the western border due to its involvement in the cross-border counterterrorism campaign in Afghanistan, reducing its conventional defence capacity against India.
 
Four, the acquisition of foreign nuclear plants and fuel, made possible by the Indo-US civilian nuclear cooperation agreement, will enable India to enlarge its nuclear weapons stockpile significantly. To maintain nuclear balance, Pakistan has accelerated production of fissile materials. Both nuclear arsenals are now large and growing.
 
Five, given its growing conventional disadvantage, and India’s pre-emptive war fighting doctrine, Pakistan has been obliged to deploy a larger number of nuclear-capable missiles, including so-called ‘theatre’ or tactical nuclear-capable missiles. The nuclear ‘threshold’ is now much lower.
 
Six, the Kashmir dispute — once described by former US president Bill Clinton as a nuclear flashpoint — continues to fester. Another insurgency is likely to erupt, certainly if the Bharatiya Janata Party government goes ahead with its platform promise to abrogate Article 370 of the Indian constitution (which accords special status to Jammu & Kashmir). A renewed Kashmiri insurgency will evoke Indian accusations against Pakistan and unleash another Indo-Pakistan crisis.
 
Seven, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has obviously decided to adopt an aggressive posture towards Pakistan, no doubt to appeal to his hard-line Hindu constituency. The recent ceasefire violations along the Line of Control are an ominous indication of such belligerency.
 
Eight, India is reportedly involved in supporting the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and the Baloch Liberation Army to destabilise Pakistan internally.
 
Nine, India has terminated the ‘composite dialogue’ with Pakistan. Its precondition for talks — an “absence of violence” — is impossible for Pakistan to meet.
 
Ten, the US and other major powers evince little interest in addressing the combustible mix of live disputes, terrorist threats, conventional arms imbalance and nuclear weapons in South Asia.
 
During the parallel dialogue initiated by the US with Pakistan and India following their 1998 nuclear explosions, Pakistan proposed a ‘strategic restraint regime’ with India which would include mechanisms to resolve disputes, including Kashmir; preserve a conventional arms balance and promote mutual nuclear and missile restraint.
India rejected the concept of a mutual restraint regime.
 
The US at first agreed to consider Pakistan’s proposal. However, as their talks with India transitioned from restricting India’s nuclear programme to building a “strategic partnership” (against China), the Americans de-hyphenated policy towards Pakistan and India, opened the doors to building India’s conventional and nuclear capabilities and disavowed any interest in the Kashmir dispute. Currently, Indian belligerence is bolstered by US pressure on Pakistan to halt fissile material production and reverse the deployment of theatre nuclear-capable missiles.
 
If a South Asian Armageddon is to be prevented, it is essential to build a structure of stable deterrence between India and Pakistan and find ways to deal with Kashmir and other outstanding disputes. Reviving consideration of a strategic restraint regime would be a good place to start.
 
The writer is a former Pakistan ambassador to the UN.

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PAKISTANI PARENTS ALERT: Beyond Stanford: Silicon Valley foreign talent pipeline winds through little-known schools

Posted by admin in India Backstabbing US, India Destroys US Economy, INDIA FRAUD, INDIA'S EXPORT- IT SCAMMER TO USA on October 25th, 2014

Beyond Stanford: Silicon Valley foreign talent pipeline winds through little-known schools

Lauren Hepler
Economic Development Reporter-
Silicon Valley Business Journal

An overview of the number of F-1 international student visas issued for Silicon Valley colleges, ranging from expensive and elite Stanford University to schools with much less name recognition — and much murkier academic and legal positions.

 

VisaMillPic

 

 

It’s no secret that Silicon Valley is powered in large part by imported talent.
More than a quarter of a million college-educated, foreign-born workers are employed in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, according to think tank Joint Venture Silicon Valley.
But a new report reveals a disconnect between the stereotypical image of international Stanford computer science grads coding away on Google Inc.’s newest products and the day-to-day reality for many foreign-born students seeking their big break in Silicon Valley.
About 19,000 students, more than 10,400 from India alone, studied in the San Jose metro area on F-1 international student visas from 2008-2012, according to the new Brookings Institution report based on federal immigration records. That makes Silicon Valley the No. 9 market nationwide for F-1 students behind larger urban areas like New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
However, three out of the top five colleges for international students — Sunnyvale’s for-profit Herguan University, plus San Jose-based International Technological University and Silicon Valley University — deviate from traditional higher education models, offering cheaper tuition and mostly advanced-degree programs driven by workforce demand.
“You see these schools that you haven’t seen before or heard of,” said study author and Brookings fellow Neil Ruiz. Ruiz found that most international students nationwide still end up at large, traditional schools like the University of Southern California and Columbia University. That makes Silicon Valley “an outlier,” he said.
Some of the under-the-radar schools in Silicon Valley have been linked to federal immigration investigations. 2012 tax filings for ITU also reveal operating losses and loans to now-departed executives. Silicon Valley University’s filings indicate atypical work arrangements and pay for board members and its CEO.
The question now is whether pending visa fraud charges against Herguan CEO Jerry Wang, along with inflamed immigration politics and spiking demand for tech talent during a tech boom will alter the region’s unique market for international education.
In the meantime, the economic stakes for the students — and Silicon Valley — are enormous.
Ruiz said that the nearly 20,000 international students that have cycled through the region on F-1 visas from 2008-2012 paid more than $600 million in tuition and local living costs (not factoring in financial aid). There are also international business ties to consider.
 it’s same thing with the financial hub in San Francisco (that) is well connected with Beijing and Seoul.”
Feeding the STEM talent pipeline
One city rises far above the others as the most common hometown for Silicon Valley’s international student base.
The No. 1 location of origin is the South Indian city of Hyderabad, which accounted for 2,826 students on F-1 visas, the new Brookings report found. No. 2 is Mumbai with 529 students, then Beijing with 447 students and Seoul with 440 students.
Past reports by Ruiz and others have established a similar pattern of Silicon Valley’s reliance on India, along with other Asian nations, for workers employed through H-1B visas — a separate legal area that has raised concerns from critics about underpaying workers or eliminating jobs for U.S. citizens.
Both H-1B and F-1 visas have been a target of Silicon Valley immigration reform lobbying efforts, which seek to raise the number of available visas and allow companies to hire more international workers.
The majority of students on F-1 visas, just under 10,000 individuals from 2008-2012, studied engineering or computer science, Brookings reported. About 4,700 students studied business disciplines, seeking an MBA or degrees in fields like marketing and sales.
How those skills actually translate to the region’s job market, however, remains up for debate. Silicon Valley ranks No. 50 nationwide when it comes to retention of foreign students, with just 35 percent staying in Silicon Valley after school.
While immigrant workers and their employers often argue that federal immigration laws make it difficult to stay in the country legally, the low retention numbers also raise questions about the real-world value of degrees completed by foreign students.
In the meantime, Ruiz is interested in figuring out what sorts of marketing American colleges are doing to attract foreign students, particularly in Southern India.
“I don’t know how they’re being recruited,” he said. “We need that story to actually see the link.”
Going to school for a degree or a visa?
The new Brookings Institution report isn’t the first to highlight inconsistencies in the educational opportunities available to international students in Silicon Valley.
As far back as 2011, the Chronicle of Higher Education detailed a system where colleges including Herguan University, “exploit byzantine federal regulations, enrolling almost exclusively foreign students and charging them upward of $3,000 for a chance to work legally in the United States. They flourish in California and Virginia, where regulations are lax.”
But that narrative has shifted with 2012 criminal charges against Herguan University CEO Wang and heightened demand for tech talent from large employers. And the three lesser-know schools attracting large numbers of international students in Silicon Valley occupy distinctly different niches.
Wang was indicted on federal visa fraud charges and is currently awaiting a November court date with a Northern California U.S. District Judge, court records show. That hasn’t interrupted the school’s advertising of its low-cost courses.
Herguan has also accumulated a handful of recent online reviews. They range from a one-star “Fake school do not go,” to a five-star review asserting that, “Classes are equivalent to Harvard and Stanford University.” Wang’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.
While Herguan is an unaccredited private school advertising classes starting at $295 per credit, Silicon Valley University does have accreditation from the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools and offers bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees. The school is not accredited by regional bodies that certify top-ranked state and private universities.
Silicon Valley University denied a charge in Wang’s indictment that it accepted transfer credits from Herguan, which was one stipulation of federal law that Wang was charged with violating. Silicon Valley University did not respond to requests for comment, but IRS records also show an atypical lack of compensation for board members and executives.
Three directors were listed as working zero hours per week and receiving zero compensation. The school’s president, Feng Min Jerry Shao, was listed in 2012 as working an average 20 hours per week and receiving zero compensation.
The same 2012 tax form notes that school administrators believed they had been “getting recognition in the Silicon Valley as one of the good training institute (sic) for high-tech professionals.”
Finally, there is downtown San Jose’s International Technological University, which in 2013 won a well-regarded accreditation after a 2011 San Jose Mercury News report questioned whether ITU, Herguan and other schools met federal standards for serving international students.
ITU has attempted a re-brand as it looks to disassociate from that field and expand its programming both online and in person.
“The same agency that accredits Stanford and the UCs accredits us,” ITU COO Rebecca Choi told me. “To be entangled with people who may be breaking laws… it’s just not in the same genre.”
But ITU’s financial records offer interesting data points: 2012 IRS records reveal that the school’s expenditures of $10 million outpaced revenue by $2.8 million. One now-retired executive vice president alone earned $385,000 in compensation and was loaned $1 million for the “purchase of IT.”
Though Choi said ITU spends little money on traditional advertising, the school has grown its enrollment in recent years from a low of less than 100 students a decade ago. Recent enrollment data provided by ITU shows that 1,838 students were enrolled this summer, including 1,545 full-time students — 1,400 of which were on F-1 visas. India, China, Nepal, Pakistan and Vietnam were the top countries of origin.
“They’re approved universities,” Ruiz said. “They may not be Carnegie ranked, but they do have a purpose”
Lauren Hepler is the economic development reporter at the Silicon Valley Business Journal.

Reference

 

Sep 4, 2014, 7:16am PDT

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